System and method for utilizing television viewing patterns

Abstract

Systems and methods for effectively and efficiently receiving, analyzing, and using subscriber content choice information are described. One embodiment of the present invention includes a subscriber-action database, such as a clickstream database, a media-content database, and a merge processor electronically connected to the two databases for merging data in the subscriber-action database with data in the media-content database to create a subscriber content-choice database. The media-content database may include programming and/or advertising data. The media-content database may also include category and context information to provide the capability to comprehensively analyze data in the subscriber content-choice database.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application relates to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/496,825, filed Feb. 1, 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference.

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document and its figures contain material subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the measurement of content-access patterns. The present invention more particularly relates to the efficient and timely collection, analysis, and utilization of content-access patterns and associated behaviors.

BACKGROUND

Individuals receive information and entertainment content from a wide variety of media sources. These sources include radio, newspapers, the Internet, and television content providers.

To support the creation and distribution of content, providers must derive revenue from the content. For example, television content providers derive substantial revenues from advertising. During the broadcast of a television program, advertisements, in the form of commercials, are inserted at various time intervals. An advertiser pays the broadcaster to insert the advertisement. Internet content providers derive revenue in a similar manner. However, in the case of an Internet content provider, advertisements are often provided simultaneously with other content.

The amount of money that an advertiser pays is related to the number of subscribers watching or accessing a broadcast. Conventionally, for television advertising, advertising revenue equals a rate per thousand viewers multiplied by the number of viewers estimated to be viewing a program. Web site content providers charge advertisers a fixed amount per advertising impression. Therefore, the higher the number of viewers or subscribers accessing content, the greater the revenue.

In the case of television programming, if a program is popular, the provider charges a higher advertising rate. In contrast, if a television program cannot produce at least as much revenue as it costs to produce the program, the provider will generally cancel the program. Therefore, television-programming providers are very interested in determining the popularity of specific programs.

Additional factors beyond the popularity of a program may affect the number of viewers who watch it. For example, a program scheduled adjacent to a popular program or between two popular programs may attain higher ratings than it might achieve without such opportune scheduling. A similar effect occurs on web sites. A large number of web site users may read content posted on a popular web site. However the same piece appearing on a less popular site may attract little attention. Therefore, content providers are interested in determining the interrelationships between various combinations of content and content types.

Content providers conventionally utilize various methods to evaluate the popularity of content and to evaluate the interrelationships between content. For example, a television-programming provider may implement a program of voluntary logging of television viewing by a viewer, followed by transmission and human processing to analyze the information contained in the log. In addition, a provider may utilize telephone, mail, or other types of surveys to inquire from random or selected viewers about the viewers' viewing habits and request their recollections regarding their viewing patterns. A provider may also utilize automated monitoring systems that attempt to intercept television channel choices and changes, record these events, and provide the recording to a clearinghouse or other facility for further processing.

The provider may enlist a ratings company to perform the monitoring and processing. For example, Nielsen Media Research (Nielsen Media Research, Inc., New York, N.Y.), Arbitron (Arbitron Inc., New York, N.Y.), and MeasureCast (MeasureCast, Inc., Portland, Oreg.) provide third-party monitoring and processing capability for television, radio, and Internet content.

The Nielsen Media Research (Nielsen) Ratings are perhaps the best known of the various third-party ratings services. Nielsen utilizes a variety of conventional sampling methods to determine the number of viewers watching a particular show. For example, in five thousand homes, Nielsen installs a People Meter. The People Meter records viewing patterns from television sets, cable television set-top boxes, videocassette recorders, satellite television set-top boxes, and other sources of television programming. The People Meter records what content the particular device is providing on an ongoing basis and periodically transmits this information to servers within a Nielsen facility. Nielsen combines the data uploaded from the People Meter with media content data to determine what programming and advertising a device displayed. Nielsen uses the combined data to provide a rating for each program and advertisement. In conjunction with the People Meter, Nielsen also utilizes viewer diaries and surveys to gather information from a broader spectrum of television viewers and to confirm the results generated by the People Meter.

Arbitron Inc. (Arbitron) is well known for providing radio broadcast ratings. Arbitron compiles ratings by utilizing surveys. Arbitron also provides television ratings based on various sampling techniques. In cooperation with Nielsen, Arbitron has developed a Portable People Meter to measure television ratings. The Portable People Meter is a pager-sized device, worn by a participant in a survey. The Portable People Meter records viewing by recording sounds encoded into each broadcast, which identify the program or advertisement. The survey participant periodically plugs the Portable People Meter into a recharger, which also includes a communicator that uploads the data in the Portable People Meter into a remote Arbitron server. The Portable People Meter may be a more accurate method of television ratings than a set-top box, such as the set-top box used by Nielsen. The Portable People Meter offers the advantage of capturing viewing outside of the home and of recognizing when the viewer is not within audible range of a television, and therefore, less likely to be viewing a particular program or advertisement.

As the use of the Internet increases, the distribution of programming via Internet channels becomes more important. MeasureCast, Inc. (MeasureCast) provides a ratings system for Internet media streaming. MeasureCast records the number of streams requested from a streaming server and provides reports to programming providers and advertisers detailing the popularity of particular streams. As is the case in traditional broadcast media, the more popular the stream, the higher the advertising rate a broadcaster is able to charge.

Nielsen, Arbitron, and MeasureCast provide direct methods of measuring the popularity of a program. Various indirect methods are also used to determine the popularity of programming and the effectiveness of advertising. For example, advertising effectiveness is often measured in terms of viewer attitudes and subsequent viewer actions, such as purchases, inquiries, behavior changes, and other actions. Method of obtaining these indirect measures include: focus group tests, post-advertising surveys questioning whether an advertisement was viewed, remembered and possible impact, and measures of product purchases or other indirect results that may indicate whether or not an advertising campaign has been successful.

Conventional methods to determine television viewer patterns and preferences are inefficient and not well suited to immediate, timely use for any content-customization applications. In addition, conventional systems, such as the Nielsen and Arbitron meters rely on small samples, which may not be representative of the target market for a particular advertiser.

Also, surveys are expensive and highly dependent on identifying individuals that may have been viewing television at the time of the advertisement. And post advertising results measurements suffer from questions of causality and external influences. Focus groups allow reasonably efficient low-volume viewer analysis, but statistical analysis requires an adequate number of participants and tightly controlled tests, a combination that may be difficult to achieve.

Conventional systems and methods lack simple, effective, and efficient means for determining content genre preferences. Conventional systems and methods also lack simple and efficient means for determining the duration of viewing patterns, especially as those patterns are affected by the genre or type of content, the time-of-day of a broadcast, and the content broadcast simultaneously with or adjacently to the content of interest.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides systems and methods for effectively and efficiently receiving, analyzing, and utilizing subscriber content-choice information. In an embodiment of the present invention, a merge processor combines subscriber-action and media-content detail to create a subscriber content-choice database. The resultant database provides a wealth of information regarding a subscriber's content-access patterns, including genre and time-of-day preferences as well as duration-of-access patterns.

The media-content database may include television, radio, Internet, and other programming and/or advertising data. The subscriber-action database includes actions a subscriber takes to access media content. For example, in one embodiment of the present invention, the subscriber-action database comprises a clickstream database. A clickstream database is common in Internet monitoring applications and similar databases have been described for tracking television subscriber actions. The clickstream database tracks individual subscriber actions, such as clicking a hyperlink on a web page or pushing a button on a television remote control.

In order to provide a database containing the subscriber's content choices, the merge processor merges data in the subscriber-action and media-content databases. To enable the merging of the data, each database includes a key data element. In one embodiment of the present invention each database includes a date-time identifier. The date-time identifier indicates on what date and at what time the subscriber action occurred or the media-content was available. For example, if a subscriber enters a number into a television set-top box at a point in time at which a provider is broadcasting a program on the selected channel, the merged data will indicate that the subscriber was accessing the broadcast program.

Other embodiments of the present invention include additional databases. For example, in order to categorize programming and advertising, in an embodiment of the present invention, a category or genre database is electronically linked to the media-content database. The category database may include category or advertisement category data. A program category database includes a list of general categories or genres, which may be assigned to programs in order to group various individual programs together. An advertisement category database performs the same function for advertisements.

The merge processor operates to assign a category to a media-content detail and create a content choice record by merging a subscriber action detail with the categorized media-content detail. An embodiment of the present invention may include a computer-readable medium comprising computer code to implement the process.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the merge processor receives a series of subscriber actions, merges the actions with media-content detail, and then attempts to correlate the actions with one another. The merge processor may also assign a category to the media-content detail and perform a probability analysis on subscriber content-choice information in order to predict future subscriber actions.

An embodiment of the present invention provides numerous advantages over conventional systems for using subscriber content-choice information in evaluating the popularity and effectiveness of content.

It is difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine television viewer category or genre preferences, e.g., sports, shopping, and/or other broad advertisement categories. Also, the category or genre preference may be further sub-categorized, e.g., college basketball, home theater, or other more detailed category, creating greater inefficiency in determining viewer preferences. The database resulting from the merge process in an embodiment of the present invention is useful for subscriber content-choice reporting, automated targeting of advertising, promotions, etc. based upon viewer category or genre-choice preferences.

Further, it is difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine whether subscribers have or tend to view the full duration of a show or only watch particular programming content genres or titles for limited periods of time. For example, a subscriber may view a program for five minutes and then switch the channel. In an embodiment of the present invention, reported duration patterns enable programmers and advertisers to establish high-value, for example, a high-probability of impression, timeframes within programs for various marketing, advertising and other purposes.

In addition, it is difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine the specific time-of-day viewing patterns of subscribers, including, for example, statistically significant trends for limited time viewing before weekday commutes, limited time viewing during meal hours, etc. In an embodiment of the present invention, information associated with the time of day during which customers view television will be valuable for certain day part analysis used by networks to determine high-value (e.g. high-probability of impression) timeframes within programs for various marketing, advertising and other purposes.

It is also difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine the viewing patterns of behaviors associated with viewer choices regarding programs prior to or following a program in question. For example, the tendency of customers to terminate sports programming which follows or precedes news programming may be valuable information for a program provider. Also, information associated with the probability of continued viewing of programming content following a specific category or genre of programming is valuable for certain day part analysis used by networks to determine high-value, e.g., high-probability of impression, timeframes within programs for various marketing, advertising and other purposes.

It is also difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine the viewing patterns of behaviors associated with viewer choices regarding the broad advertisement content categories occurring in groups of programming which a viewer observes. For example, it is difficult to determine the tendency of subscribers who watch sequences of consecutive programming to terminate non-sports programming when non-sports programming intervenes within a grouping of sports viewing. In an embodiment of the present invention, reports provide information for advertisers as well as program providers. For example, sorted data of successful advertising impressions for all subscribers may be combined to present a highly accurate analysis of the success of advertising impressions based upon the categories or genres or time-of-day in which the advertising was shown.

It is difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine whether advertising viewers continue to view an entire advertisement or “channel hop” to other programming. For example, whether subscribers view luxury car advertisements throughout the full duration of a thirty-second spot and/or whether subscribers immediately terminate the soft drink advertising spots.

And it is difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine whether advertising viewers have a higher or lower probability of viewing or terminating advertisements based upon the content of the directly preceding or following programs. It is also difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine whether advertising viewers have a higher or lower probability of viewing or terminating advertisements based upon the consistency and content of genres of programming presented in a multiple program sequence over a specified time interval preceding or subsequent to the advertisement. In an embodiment of the present invention, various standardized and customized reports provide data to address these issues.

It is also difficult and inefficient in conventional systems to determine the relative strengths of competitive advertising. In an embodiment of the present invention, specific analysis may be performed to compare advertising effectiveness against competitive advertising campaigns.

Further details and advantages of the present invention are set forth below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention are better understood when the following Detailed Description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary embodiment and an exemplary environment for operation of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process implemented by a merge processor in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a table illustrating various sources of programming and advertising content available to a subscriber during a period of time in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3B illustrates content displayed on a subscriber's television during a period of time in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the process of merging the data shown in FIG. 3A to create the merged data shown in FIG. 3B in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a table illustrating the programming viewed by the subscriber during the period shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 4 in an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for effectively and efficiently receiving, combining, categorizing, and analyzing subscriber content access patterns, such as television viewing patterns, with local and national television programming and advertising content data. In an embodiment of the present invention, a subscriber's television viewing patterns are combined with programming and advertising media-content detail to determine the subscriber's content choices. These content choices are categorized so that the data may be analyzed at various levels and from various perspectives. In another embodiment, a subscriber's content choice is correlated with preceding and succeeding content choices to determine how various combinations of advertising and programming content affect a subscriber's content choices.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary environment for an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown, a cable operator's head-end facility 102 includes a merge processor 104, which is in communication with a plurality of databases. These databases include a local-content database 106, a subscriber-action database 112, and a national-content database 114. The merge processor 104 is programmed to receive and merge data from the two databases 112, 114.

The local-content database 106 includes information from the advertising 108 and programming 110 databases. The advertising database 108 includes information related to local advertising produced and/or provided by the cable operator or other local source. Likewise, the programming database 110 includes information related to locally produced and/or provided programming. The advertising database 108 includes attributes of advertisements, such as the advertiser, producer, brand, product type, length of the content, and other descriptive information. The programming database 110 includes similar information related to programming, including the producer, type of programming, length, rating, and other descriptive information. The local-content 106, programming 108, and advertising 110 databases include a date-time identifier, which indicates when a program or advertisement has been provided. The date-time indicator provides a key value for merging various databases with one another.

In the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the cable operator head-end 102 also includes a national-content database 114. The national-content database 114 includes information from an advertising database 116 and a programming database 118. The information contained in each of these respective databases is similar to that contained in the local advertising 108 and programming 110 databases. However, the content is produced for a national audience and subsequently provided to the cable operator. The national-content 114, programming 118, and advertising 116 databases also include a date-time identifier.

The cable operator head-end 102 also includes a subscriber-action database 112. The subscriber-action database 112 includes the actions taken by subscribers while viewing television sets. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, subscriber-action database 112 is in communication with cable network 120. A processor (not shown) in cable network 120 receives any subscriber actions transmitted via cable network 120 and inserts the actions as records in subscriber-action database 112. Also in communication with cable network 120 is a set-top box 124, which is installed in a subscriber's home 122. Also located in subscriber's home 122 is a television (TV) 126. As a subscriber 123 makes viewing choices on TV 126 via set-top box 124, these choices or actions are transmitted via a processor (not shown) in cable network 120 to the subscriber-action database 112.

The subscriber-action database may include a clickstream database. A clickstream database is common in Internet monitoring applications. Each time a web-browser user clicks on a link in a web page, a record of that click is stored in a conventional clickstream database. A database that includes similar information for television viewers is disclosed in a patent application filed on May 25, 2000 by Edward R. Grauch, et. al., Ser. No. 09/496,92, entitled “Method and System for Tracking Network Use,” which is hereby incorporated by reference. In the database described, each action taken by a television subscriber 123, such as “channel up” and “channel down” are stored in a database with a date-time stamp to allow tracking of the television subscriber's actions.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a merge processor 104 receives information from the local-content 106, national-content 114, and subscriber-action 112 databases and merges the data based on date-time attributes of the data. For example, a detail record in the subscriber-action database 112 indicates that a subscriber's set-top box 124 was tuned to channel 12, a National Broadcasting Company (NBC) affiliate. A record in the national-content database 114 indicates that at the same point in time, NBC was broadcasting a Professional Golf Association (PGA) tournament. A record in the local-content database 106 further indicates that the cable provider preempted the PGA tournament to broadcast an infomercial for a real estate investment strategy video. The merge processor 104 receives information from each of these sources and determines that at the point in time of interest, the subscriber 123 was watching the infomercial. The merge processor stores the resultant data in the subscriber content-choice database 128. In one embodiment of the present invention, the merge processor collects information from the various databases rather than receiving it. For example, a program on the merge processor 104 includes instructions for connecting to the various databases and extracting data from each one.

In another embodiment of the present invention, subscriber content-choice database 128 includes merged information for a period of time and for a plurality of subscribers. For example, a program provider may wish to track the popularity of a program for several thousand subscribers for an entire month. Another provider may be interested in analyzing the seasonal differences in subscriber viewing behaviors.

Although in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the cable network is a two-way digital cable network, various other network types may also be utilized. For example, in one embodiment, subscriber's home 122 receives cable service via a digital one-way cable system. In such a system, set-top box 124 may communicate subscriber actions to subscriber-action database through a modem and telephone connection periodically. In another embodiment, subscriber 123 receives content through a digital subscriber line (DSL) from a DSL provider. In a DSL system, the set-top box 124 is able to perform two-way communications and can therefore transmit subscriber actions to subscriber-action database 112 directly.

Although in the embodiment shown, the various databases and merge processor 104 are located in the head-end facility 102, in other embodiments, the databases and merge processor 104 exist as software within the set-top box 124 or as software residing within a television network's facility (not shown). The data may be captured and analyzed by programming and advertising producers or distributors or may be utilized within a subscriber's set-top box 124 to provide advanced services tailored to the subscriber 123.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the general process the merge processor (104) shown in FIG. 1 implements to categorize and merge data from the various databases in an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3-5 illustrate the process in greater detail.

Referring to FIG. 2, merge processor (104) receives subscriber action data from the subscriber-action database (112) 202. Subscriber action data may include data indicating that the subscriber 123 viewed an alternate data source for a period of time. For example, the subscriber 123 may view video from a VCR or DVD or other video source for a period of time. This video source supersedes both national and local-content in the subscriber content-choice database 128.

The merge processor (104) also receives data from the national-content database (114) 204. National-content data includes data describing media, such as programming and media, supplied by national providers. The merge processor (104) next assigns a category or genre to the national-content data 206. A genre is a specific type of category used in relation to artistic compositions, and genre and category are used interchangeably herein. The merge processor (104) assigns categories to content based on attributes of the content. For example, a program has a name and a creation date. The name of the program is “Wake Forest University vs. Duke University Basketball Game,” and a creation date equal to the current date. The merge processor (104) uses logic in a computer program to determine that the program should be categorized as a “Live Sporting Event.” The merge processor (104) may assign multiple categories to a single program, such as “Basketball,” “Sports,” “College-Related Programming,” or some other broad descriptive term.

The merge processor also receives data from the local-content database (106) 208. The merge processor (104) then assigns a category to the local-content data 210 in a manner similar to the process of assigning a category to national-content data.

Once the merge processor has assigned a category to data in each of the content databases, the merge processor merges the categorized content data, national and local, with data from the subscriber-action database (112) 212 and creates records with the combined data in the subscriber content-choice database (128) 214. Since the content data was categorized prior to the merge process, the data in the subscriber content-choice database 214 retains the assigned categories. Therefore, data in the subscriber content-choice database 214 can be sorted, filtered, reported, and used for various other processes, which utilize groupings of the data.

The subscriber content-choice database 128 may be implemented in various ways. For example, the database 128 may simply be a number of tables in a relational database. To simplify the process of querying the data, the database may include an online analytical processing tool, such as a multidimensional database.

FIG. 3A illustrates the sources of programming and advertising content available to the subscriber 123 while the set-top box 124 is tuned to a single channel. FIG. 3B illustrates the content displayed on the TV. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the process of merging the various content types shown in FIG. 3A to determine the content displayed on a particular channel.

FIG. 3A includes a Content Type column 302. The various content types displayed in the Content Type column 302 are shown in relation to Time 304. Time 304 in FIG. 3A is divided into hour 306 and quarter-hour 308 segments. FIG. 3A represents a simplistic scenario in which set-top box 124 is tuned to a single channel. Therefore, the Content Type 302 column includes five types of content: National Programming 310, National Advertising 312, Local Programming 314, Local Advertising 316, and Other Video Source 318. In order to present a simplified view of the available content types during the period, several content types overlap, when in reality, they would actually occur in series. For example, National Programming 310 and National Advertising 312 do not occur at the same time, but it is likely that programming and advertising both would be broadcast for at least some period of time during the fifteen minute periods of overlap shown in FIG. 3A. For example, during a television program provided by a broadcast network, a two or three-minute break occurs approximately every fifteen minutes. Therefore, a fifteen-minute period in which a three-minute break occurs will include twelve minutes of programming and three minutes of advertising.

As shown in FIG. 3A, multiple types of content may be provided during any period of time. The fact that the content is provided does not indicate that it is available on the set-top box (124) or that the subscriber 123 is viewing the content. For example, in the embodiment shown, the cable provider provided National Programming 310 continuously throughout the period. The provider provided National Advertising 312 approximately every 15 minutes during the same period. Also, the cable provider provided Local Programming 314 from 1:00 until 2:30, and Local Advertising 316 approximately every 15 minutes during that period. The cable provider subsequently provided Local Advertising 316 during the period beginning at 5:15. Also during the period shown in FIG. 3A, the subscriber 123 viewed input from the Other Video Source 318, e.g., VCR or DVD, from 2:30 until 4:15.

FIG. 4 illustrates the process for determining which programming is displayed on the subscriber's television during any specific period of time and inserting that data into the subscriber content-choice database 128 if the subscriber 123 is viewing that channel. Although various sources of content, such as a cable TV channel or a DVD movie, may be available to the subscriber (123) during any period of time, the subscriber (123) generally views only one source of programming or advertising at any one time. In addition, a content provider, such as a cable operator, makes determinations regarding which content will be available via a communications channel.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a computer program executing on merge processor (104) processes the potentially viewable data sources as a hierarchy. The program first determines, using information in the subscriber-action database (112) whether the subscriber (123) was viewing another video source, such as a VCR or DVD 402. If so, the program inserts data describing the other video source 404 into the subscriber content-choice database (128), and the process ends 416.

If the subscriber (123) was not viewing an alternate source of video and was tuned to a particular channel, then the subscriber (123) was viewing the content provided by the cable operator on that channel. To determine what content was provided by the cable provider, the program executing on the merge processor (104) determines whether the cable provider was providing local programming or advertising during the period of time 406 by accessing the local-content database (106). If so, the program inserts data describing the local programming or advertising 408 into the subscriber content-choice database (128), and the process ends. If the cable provider was not providing local programming or advertising, the program determines whether or not the provider was providing national programming or advertising 410 by accessing the national-content database (114). If so, the program inserts data describing the national programming or advertising 412 into the subscriber content-choice database (128), and the process ends 416.

If the program determines that the subscriber 123 was not viewing another video source and the provider was providing no content, the program either inserts a record in the subscriber content-choice database 128 indicating that no content was available during the specific period of time or inserts no data at all 416. For example, if TV 126 is left on after a broadcaster ends broadcasting for the rest of the day, no content is available after the broadcaster ceases broadcasting, so either a record indicating the lack of content is inserted, or no data is inserted.

It is important to note that in an embodiment of the present invention, the process illustrated in FIG. 4 is repeated for each period of time that is of interest for analyzing the data. The result of the process is a plurality of records describing a subscriber's viewing patterns during a period of time. In one embodiment of the present invention, the subscriber content-choice database (128) includes data from a plurality of subscribers as well. The databases and processor (104) in such an embodiment are configured appropriately to process the anticipated volume of data.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the process is repeated for each quarter hour. In other embodiments, the time period may be divided into smaller increments, such as tenth-of-a-second increments.

FIG. 3B illustrates the result of merging the data records shown in FIG. 3A using the process illustrated in FIG. 4. As in FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B is a simplistic view of this data, including the Content Type 302 and the various slices of time 304, 306, 308. In the table shown in FIG. 3B, the Content Type column 302 includes only a Programming 320 and an Advertising 322 row.

As shown in FIG. 3A, during the period from 1:00 until 2:30, the cable provider provides local programming and advertising 312, 314. The process of FIG. 4 determined that the subscriber 123 was viewing no other video source 318, and therefore, the program inserts data into the subscriber content-choice database 128 related to local programming and advertising 320, 322. During the period beginning at 2:30 and ending at 4:15, the subscriber 123 viewed video from another source 318. Therefore, the program inserts data related to the other source for this time period. During the period from 4:15 until 5:15, the provider provided national programming and advertising with the exception of the period from 5:15 until 5:30, during which local advertising was provided. The program inserts this data into the subscriber content-choice database.

FIG. 5 is a table illustrating the programming that the subscriber 123 viewed during the period shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B. As with FIGS. 3A and 3B, the table includes a Time section 502 and a Content section 504. The Time section 502 is divided into hour and quarter-hour segments.

According to FIGS. 3A and 3B, between 1:00 and 2:30, the subscriber 123 viewed local programming and advertising. By accessing the local-content database (106), the merge processor (104) determine that the local programming consisted of a NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball game and local advertising 506.

According to FIGS. 3A and 3B, during the period from 2:30 until 4:15, the subscriber (123) viewed a DVD 508. The merge processor (104) determines that the DVD was a science fiction DVD by extracting data from the subscriber-action database (112).

And according to FIGS. 3A and 3B, between 4:15 and 5:15, the subscriber (123) viewed national content and advertising, with the exception of the period between 5:15 and 5:30 during which the cable operator inserted a local advertisement segment in the content stream in place of the national content 510. By accessing the national-content database (114), the merge processor (104) determines that the national content viewed by the subscriber (123) was a an NBA (National Basketball Association) basketball game.

In an embodiment of the present invention, an analyst evaluates the data shown in FIG. 5 to determine preferences and viewing habits of the subscriber (123). In one embodiment of the present invention, the analyst is a computer program executing on a processor (not shown). The analyst also attempts to extrapolate the data in order to project purchase habits of the subscriber 123. In order to evaluate the data shown in FIG. 5, the analyst begins by assigning a category or genre to the programming. For example, during the period between 1:00 and 2:30, the subscriber 123 viewed a NCAA basketball game 506. An analyst would assign various types and levels of categories to the game, such as basketball, college athletics (type of program), college name, and conference. The analyst may also note that sometime between 2:15 and 2:30, a PGA golf tournament began, and the subscriber 123 started a DVD movie. This might indicate that the subscriber 123 did not enjoy watching golf on TV. During the same period, the subscriber 123 also watched several advertisements. The analyst categorizes these as well. The analyst repeats the process of categorization of programming and advertising for the remainder of the data 508, 510.

Exemplary embodiments use a collector, associated with a subscriber's set top box (“STB”), to obtain data about any “events”—subscriber actions or changes in programming—that are of interest. Data about virtually any events, from channels watched to volume changes to interactive applications invoked, may be captured with the collector. Event records comprising such data, as well as the identity of the application involved and the event time, are buffered. Periodically or on command, event records are uploaded from the buffer to a merge processor such as through an interactive network that allows for duplex communication with the STB. The merge processor, which may be a head end server or a workstation computer forming part of or coupled to the media delivery network, receives (1) the event data and (2) content data that identifies programming content broadcast or delivered throughout the region in which the system is deployed. Timelines showing particular events over time may then be generated for each subscriber. Rather than just determining the channel viewed and time of day, the event timelines describe the programming or interactive applications selected by or shown to a subscriber over a selected period of time (e.g., 24 hours).

Clickstream processor 34 collects information to create a “journal” or log about all events or selected events of interest. An event is an action or a change in the state of a STB 30 that is deemed important to building a knowledge base on subscribers or their viewing patterns. For example, an event can include key presses to change channels or volume, mute, to enter the navigator for the interactive system, to turn the STB 30 off or on, to fast forward, to pause or to rewind a video obtained via the video on demand application. The events include applications called by the subscriber, such as interactive gaming applications, an electronic program guide, a video on demand or near video on demand application, a home-shopping application or a particular company's interactive application, such as The Weather Channel's weather on demand, World Span's travel on demand or Light Span's educational interactive application. Events include subscriber use of and control commands to peripheral devices coupled to the STB 30 or a subscriber's display device, such as a VCR or videodisk player.

Each application residing on the STB 30 interfaces with the clickstream processor 34 to send selected data for maintaining a desired journal. Assuming that the system 20 is used with an interactive system, many different applications may be deployed over that system and may be triggered by the subscriber. Some fairly typical applications that might be invoked include:

• • a cable television application that handles subscriber remote controls (like channel or volume changes);
  • an electronic programming guide application such as TV Data, Prevue or Star Sight interactive services;
  • an interactive game;
  • a video on demand or near video on demand application;
  • company specific applications, that might be offered by content provider such as the Weather Channel, MTV, Showtime, etc.; or
  • a navigator application to help the user choose options.

Each of these applications, as well as some internal applications that the system 20 may wish to monitor, will be assigned a unique application identifier.

Clickstream processor 34 interfaces with the various applications resident in the STB 30's operating system 32 and any third party applications 33. Note that for systems using other types of STB 30's than the embodiment described in the Figures, those STB 30's need not have an operating system. Instead, all instructions can be written directly to the memories of those particular STBs. Applications 33 can be added by either downloading entirely new software directly to memory or by downloading new tables as described below.

When an application 33 reaches a point where an “event” of interest has been generated, the application 33 stores an event record to memory. The application 33 then launches to the clickstream kernel 36 the event record, including information such as: (1) the application's 33 identification code (e.g., the “Cable Television Application” or a particular interactive application); (2) a count of the amount of information (number of bytes) to be journaled; (3) a “time stamp” that defines a unique point in time, e.g., by defining the date and time of day, accurate to the hour, minute or second; (4) an identification code for the event, or (5) where the event data was stored. Clickstream kernel 36 uses the information provided by the applications 33 to collect the event data, format it and place it into a buffer 42 or 44. Table I shows the type of information that will be generally sent by the clickstream processor 34 to the buffers 42 or 44.

TABLE I
Application Event Record
		Size
	Timestamp	6	bytes
	Assigned Application ID	16	bits
	Number Bytes to Follow (length)	8	bits
	Application Specific Data with	Multiple
	customized formats and lengths	Bytes

Global table II defines events of interest that each application can identify, collect, store in the “Application Specific Data” field and notify the clickstream kernel 36. These events could be as simple as a broadcast channel change by pressing the “Chan Up” remote key. All of these event types can be accessed and used by each application. While each application may not use every possible event type, the number of events available for collection allows system 20 to extract any pertinent usage information for analysis. Also, the use of the global table II increases system 20 efficiency because event types can be modified, added or removed.

TABLE II

EVENT DEFINITIONS
Code   Event

Content Related Events
0x0000 Passive Content
       Change
Direct Key Presses
0x0001 TV <> ITV
       Pressed
0x0002 Power Pressed
0x0003 One (1) Pressed
0x0004 Two (2) Pressed
0x0005 Three (3) Pressed
0x0006 Four (4) Pressed
0x0007 Five (5) Pressed
0x0008 Six (6) Pressed
0x0009 Seven (7) Pressed
0x000A Eight (8) Pressed
0x000B Nine (9) Pressed
0x000C Zero (0) Pressed
0x000D Channel Up
       Pressed
0x000E Channel Down
       Pressed
0x000F Volume Up
       Pressed
0x0010 Volume Down
       Pressed
0x0011 Last Channel
       Pressed
Application/State Switching Related
0x0028 AC Power ON
0x0029 Application
       Switch (Normal)
0x002A Application
       Switch
       (Abnormal)
0x002B Application
       Terminated
       (Normal)
0x002C Application
       Terminated
       (Abnormal)
0x002D Soft Power OFF
0x002E Soft Power ON
0x002F OFF State Polling
       Event
General
0x0030 Direct Channel
       Change
0x0031 Mute
0x0032 Un-Mute
0x0033 Volume Change
       Below 50%
0x0034 Volume Change
       Below 25%
0x0035 Volume Change
       Below 10%
0x0036 Volume Change
       Above 50%
0x0037 Volume Change
       Above 25%
0x0038 Volume Change
       Above 10%
0x0039 Change to
       Interactive Mode
0x003A Change to
       Broadcast Mode

Note that Table II defines relative volume changes (e.g. “volume change below 50%,” “volume change below 25%,” etc.). Although the applications could capture the actual key presses that lead to these relative volume changes, that level of detailed information is of little use to system 20 operators. Also, capturing all that detail leads to more records and higher demands upon the transmission network 52 when those records are uploaded. Applications could also be configured to “filter” other unwanted details about other subscriber activities. For example, when subscribers “channel surf” by quickly flipping through a number of channels in a short period of time, the application could be configured not to record channel changes unless the subscriber paused for greater than a certain selected time period (e.g., 15 to 30 seconds). Again, this eliminates information of little use and decreases network traffic.

Table III defines a small portion of a sample global channel identification table that proposes codes for identifying national and local broadcasters. Such a table allows any application journaling events which occur while subscribers are viewing broadcast or cable television programs to identify the network carrying the programming content by using a subset of the global table II. In this way channel lineups can be changed yet the identifier for a broadcast or cable network would stay the same. The use of this mapping scheme eliminates the need to map an ever-changing channel number to a network.

TABLE III

Broadcast Channel
Identification


0x0100 to
0x011F News/Talk Shows

0x0100 CNN
0x0101 Headline News
0x0102 The Weather
       Channel
0x0103 CNBC
0x0104 CSPAN
0x0105 CSPAN-2
0x0106 America's
       Talking
0x0107 Talk Channel
0x0108 Court TV
0x0109 The Crime
       Channel
0x010A National
       Empowerment
       TV

0x0120 to
0x013F Sports

0x0120 ESPN
0x0121 ESPN-2
0x0122 SportSouth
0x0123 The Golf Channel
0x0124 Classic Sports
       Network
0x0125 Prime Network
0x0126 NewSport

0x0140 to
0x015F Music

0x0140 MTV
0x0141 VH-1
0x0142 Country Music
       Television
0x0143 The Nashville
       Network
0x0144 The Box
0x0145 Video Jukebox
0x0146 MOR Music TV
0x0147 Music Choice

Table IV below shows some possible identification codes for particular applications. Note that each application could be programmed to insert its application ID code into the event record without accessing table IV. But by having each application access the table IV during the journaling process, the system's 20 ability to modify or add application ID codes easily is enhanced because such codes could be populated across system 20 by downloading an updated table IV. Providing for downloading of new tables increases the application footprint and system 20 complexity so tables can also be part of the application programming.

TABLE IV

Application Identifiers
ID Code  Content

0x0000   Operating System
0x0001-F Operating System Sub-Systems
0x0010   Application Manager
0x0011   Cable Television Application
0x0012   Clickstream Kernel
0x0100   EPG System
0x0101   Digital Pictures - Interactive Game
0x0110-F Viacom - MTV/Showtime, etc.
0x1000   Interplay Written Applications General ID
0x1001   Interplay Runtime Engine
0x1002   Interplay Navigator
0x1003   Interplay VOD
0x1004   Interplay NVOD
0x1005   Interplay TownGuide
0x1100   The Weather Channel, Weather On-Demand
0x1101   Worldspan - Travel On-Demand
0x1102   Lightspan - Educational Interactive Application
0xFFFF   Missed Events Record

Each particular application can simply reference the global application, event and channel identification tables (which periodically may be updated and then downloaded to STBs 30) in order to build an event record. Examples of application specific event records that may be created in this manner are shown in Tables V through VIII below and discussed in associated text.

A cable TV application 33 may tune analog or digital broadcast services. When a command to change channels is entered, the cable TV application 33 is invoked. The cable TV application 33 begins building an event record by inserting an application ID and time stamp into the record. Next, the application 33 determines the “event ID” by cross-referencing the command with the global event ID table II for the proper code. Then, the application 33 journals the “Channel ID.”

Although the Channel ID could simply be the number of the channel, that information means little. The fact that channel 6 was watched more than channel 7 has little or no meaning unless networks and, ultimately, the content delivered by those networks are associated with particular channels. Accordingly, the Channel ID may be a field, like a 16 bit field, which uniquely identifies the broadcast network displayed on that particular channel. The Channel ID may be determined by programming the cable TV application 33 to compare the channel number tuned with global broadcast channel identification table III, above, to determine the correct channel identification code. Correlating the channel number with the channel identification code found in Table III ensures accurate reporting even though channels may differ at different cable TV headends within a particular region or even though individual channel line-up changes may be made over a period of time. This correlation between channel number and channel identification code could be done also at the staging server 70 after it receives all of the event records, provided that correlation there accounted for different regional channel lineups.

TABLE V
Cable TV Application Event Record
	Size
Application ID: See Application ID table IV	16	bits
Time stamp: Identifies event time	6	bytes
Event ID: See Global Event ID table II for Syntax	16	bits
Channel ID: See Broadcast Channel ID table III for	16	bits
Syntax

Table VI below shows a navigator application that may be provided in order to give subscribers an interactive menu that assists them in selecting from the many available programs and applications in an interactive network. The “Event ID” refers to the identification codes for commands relating to the Navigator application, which codes may be located by referring to the global event ID table II above. Table VI also shows some of the features of the navigator that might be used by the subscriber and that could be useful to track. The right hand column under “Size/Data” shows, first, next to the “Application state ID” that 8 bits are allocated to that record and, second, in the various rows beneath, the particular code that is journaled in order to indicate a subscriber accessed the identified (e.g. Fly-Thru, Main Menu, etc.) screen. Such information lets system 20 operators determine the screens that users are viewing heavily or lightly in order to replace less popular screens with more useful ones or to charge more for advertisements placed on heavy use screens.

TABLE VI
Navigator Application Event Record
	Size/Data
Application ID: See Application ID table IV	16	bits
Time stamp: Identifies event time	6	bytes
Event ID: See Global Event ID table for Syntax	16	bits
Application State ID: See below for information tracked:	8	bits
Fly-Thru	0x00
Main Menu	0x01
Information (Help) Screen or Video	0x02
Movies Sub-Menu	0x03
Movie Categories Sub-Menu	0x04
List of Movies Sub-Menu	0x05
Movie Info Screen	0x06
Movie Buy State	0x07

Table VII similarly shows the journaling information collected for a video on demand application 33 that may be launched in an interactive service from the Navigator application above or its equivalent. Some of the information collected here may include the amount of pausing, fast forwarding and rewinding. Additionally, the service provider may want to determine whether viewers are recording a video in order to charge them a recording fee. Similar information could be collected for a near video on demand service, which typically allows only incremental pause, forward or rewind.

TABLE VII
Video on Demand Application Event Record
	Size/Data
Application ID: See Application ID table IV	16	bits
Time stamp: Identifies event time	6	bytes
Event ID: See Global Event ID table for Syntax	16	bits
Application State ID: See below for information tracked:	8	bits
Playing	0x00
Paused	0x01
Fast Forward	0x02
Rewind	0x03
Info (Help) Video or Screen Played	0x04
Reserved	0x05
Reserved	0x06
Reserved	0x07

Table VIII below shows the event record for the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) application 33. The EPG application 33 records the application ID, timestamp and event ID records just as do the above applications described in tables V-VII. Additionally, it has an application 33 state ID field that identifies which of the display screens were accessed by subscribers, as shown below.

TABLE VIII
Electronic Program Guide (EPG) Application Event Record
	Size/Data
Application ID: See Application ID table IV	16	bits
Time stamp: Identifies event time	6	bytes
Event ID: See Global Event ID table for Syntax	16	bits
Application State ID: See below for information tracked:	8	bits
Initial Display Screen	0x00
Look Ahead Display 4 Hour	0x01
Look Ahead Display 8 Hour	0x02
Look Ahead Display 12 Hour	0x03
Look Ahead Display 16 Hour	0x04
Look Ahead Display 20 Hour	0x05
Look Ahead Display 24 Hour	0x06
Reserved	0x07

Generally, similar information about other applications 33, such as home shopping, interactive gaming or any other new applications deployed over an interactive or other media delivery system, can be tracked in a similar fashion. Additionally, the journaling process may be used to track errors within the system 20, with clickstream kernel 36 journaling such errors using the same method as described above.

Over time, the journaling needs of system 20, or system 20 itself may evolve. Applications may be changed or new ones deployed. New events may become of interest to the operator of system 20. In order to provide flexibility for system 20, operators may download to STBs 30 new or replacement applications that will include the necessary processes for journaling all events of interest.

FIGS. 6A and 6B show an overview of the merging and parsing process and FIG. 7 shows sample results following that process. Briefly, the aim of the merge and parse process is to merge each STB 30's event records with various “metadata.” “Metadata” refers to (1) programming of virtually any type shown on system 20 including the time and broadcast or cable network providing such programming or (2) interactive applications invoked by subscribers. For instance, metadata includes the following sources of data: EPG broadcast programming schedule data 82, broadcast advertising schedule data 84, local advertising schedule data or session-services advertising schedule data 86 and session-services programming schedule data 88. As used herein, “session-services advertising” refers to advertising inserted by video server 60 (or alternate insertion means) during particular interactive sessions with the subscriber (via the STB) that are the session-services programming.

Collectively, all of this data enters into a merge and parse engine 90 that creates an event timeline 92 for each STB 30. Merge and parse engine 90 may be deployed upon staging server 70 or the MKIS system 100. So deploying merge and parse engine 90 on staging server 70 allows collected event records to be merged and parsed. The resulting event timelines 92 can be sent to MKIS system 100 for further analysis.

Timeline 92 provides a snapshot of activity on a particular STB 30 for a selected period (e.g., 24 hours) or for a selected event—for instance, a timeline 92 would be created for each STB 30 tuning to a particular show or shows (e.g., a pay per view fight) that may occur over a selected period. Timeline 92 is created by merging event records with metadata about programming available over the network for the selected time period.

To merge that data, proper priority must be assigned to data that otherwise may be conflicting. For instance, broadcast advertising data 84 may indicate that a certain national ad was run at Time A. On the other hand, if the system 20 is an interactive system and the interactive server provided a targeted advertisement (“ad”) also at Time A, as indicated by session-services advertising data 86, that targeted ad was inserted over the national ad at Time A. Thus, by assigning session-services advertising data 86 a priority higher than national broadcast advertising data 84, the merge and parse engine 90 is able to create an accurate timeline 92 of programming delivered to a particular STB 30. Similarly, even a traditional cable or wireless cable network requires priority assignments. Typically, local cable operators typically are allowed to insert local ads over certain national ads (assuming they can sell that local ad time).

FIG. 6B depicts such priority assignments. FIG. 6B shows several sources of data, such as EPG metadata, National and Local Insert ad metadata and Interactive Sessions metadata. EPG metadata is usually very broad—for instance, showing a football game on channel 1 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Thus, EPG metadata is assigned a priority lower than that of national ad metadata because a particular national ad will be overlayed into a particular time slot broadly defined by the EPG. In turn, local insert ad metadata trumps national ad metadata because the national ad metadata may not account for situations where a local network or affiliate inserts a local ad over the national ad scheduled for a particular timeslot. Finally, interactive sessions metadata, which reflects subscriber selections, has the highest priority as it shows the subscriber stopped watching a particular channel and instead invoked an interactive session.

Applying these priority rules produces a timeline 94 for each subscriber. Additional filtering criteria 94 are applied by the merge and parse engine 90 in order to generate a further refined timeline 94, as depicted in FIG. 6A. For example, event records may include such highly granular and specific information as the number of volume ups or channel ups that a particular subscriber entered. One set of filtering criteria 94 may ensure that the timeline 92 includes only channels that were viewed for more than a threshold (e.g., 15 seconds) time period. This eliminates any very fast channel changes made by the subscribers, thereby simplifying the event timeline 92 because event records that do not meet the criteria 94 are filtered out of the event timeline 92.

By categorizing content using multiple category types and multiple levels, the analyst is able to provide an abundance of information to programming and advertising producers, and providers, as well as to the product owners and manufacturers who pay to have the ads produced and distributed. Categorization in this manner also provides the analyst with multiple perspectives from which to analyze the data.

In addition, in an embodiment of the present invention, the analyst may look for patterns or correlations between multiple programs and advertisements or between categories of multiple programs and advertisements. In correlating data, the analyst is seeking causal, complementary, parallel, or reciprocal relations between various occurrences of data. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the subscriber 123 viewed a basketball game, a science fiction movie, and another basketball game. An analyst may correlate this data and find that the subscriber 123 generally watches primarily sports broadcasts, and otherwise watches content from video sources in the home. The analyst may also perform a probability analysis to determine the likelihood that a subscriber 123 will watch a particular category or genre of show if presented with the opportunity.

Although only a brief period of time is shown in the Figures, the subscriber content-choice database includes data recorded continually over many days. By analyzing various days and time periods, an analyst can determine a subscribers time-of-day viewing patterns as well as the subscriber's patterns of viewing duration. For example, an analyst may determine whether the subscriber 123 tends to view the entirety of a program or of an advertisement.

Determining the duration of viewing of advertisements is important to advertisers. If a subscriber 123 initially views an entire advertisement but subsequently, views only a small portion of the advertisement, then the advertiser may need to reschedule the advertisement so that it runs less frequently, or replace the advertisement altogether. Also, if subscribers viewing a particular category of programming generally view ads in their entirety, but other viewers do not, the advertiser may want to focus resources on presenting the advertisement to these viewers.

Beyond analyzing ads in general, advertisers may also desire information related to specific ads or even of a competitor's ads. Using the information, the advertiser may be able to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses of the advertisers own strategy versus a competitor's strategy.

In an embodiment of the present invention, various indirect methods are also used to determine the popularity of programming and the effectiveness of advertising. For example, advertising effectiveness is often measured in terms of viewer attitudes and subsequent viewer actions, such as purchases, inquiries, behavior changes, and other actions. Method of obtaining these indirect measures include: focus group tests, post-advertising surveys questioning whether an advertisement was viewed, remembered and possible impact, and measures of product purchases or other indirect results that may indicate whether or not an advertising campaign has been successful. In an embodiment of the present invention, additional databases store the data derived through these indirect methods. The merge processor 104 combines this data with the data in the subscriber content-choice database 128 to provide additional information to analysts and content providers.

An embodiment of the present invention provides great value to content providers. As a result, content providers are willing to pay for the outputs derived from the various reports and analysis. The content providers may be billed a flat subscription-type rate for access to all information received or they may pay for each report and/or analysis that they request.

An embodiment of the present invention includes a computer-readable medium, having computer-readable instructions for assigning a category and merging the subscriber-action and media-content information. Another embodiment includes computer-readable instructions for correlating multiple subscriber 123 actions occurring over a period of time.

A computer-readable medium includes an electronic, optical, magnetic, or other storage or transmission device capable of providing a processor, such as the processor in a web server, with computer-readable instructions. Examples of such media include, but are not limited to, a floppy disk, CD-ROM, magnetic disk, memory chip, or any other medium from which a computer processor can read. Also, various other forms of computer-readable media may transmit or carry instructions to a computer, including a router, private or public network, or other transmission device or channel.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented only for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Numerous modifications and adaptations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor, content information from content databases, the content information describing content available at dates and times;

receiving, by the processor, clickstream data from a clickstream database, the clickstream data sent from a set top box, the clickstream data describing actions entered at the dates and times;

receiving, by the processor, category data from a category database, the category data comprising categories to which the content information is assigned;

assigning, by the processor, a category of the categories to the content information to generate categorized content information;

processing, by the processor, the clickstream data stored in the clickstream database according to a hierarchy;

determining, by the processor, a content source associated with the content information, the processor determining the content source based on the clickstream data stored in the clickstream database according to the hierarchy, the hierarchy first causing the processor to inspect the clickstream data to determine an alternate video source as the content source to the set top box, the hierarchy second causing the processor to inspect the clickstream data to determine a channel as the content source, the hierarchy third causing the processor to query a local content database of the content databases to determine local programming provided via the channel as the content source, the hierarchy fourth causing the processor to query a national content database of the content databases to determine national programming provided via the channel as the content source, and the hierarchy fifth causing the processor to determine no content was available via the channel;

merging, by the processor, the clickstream data with the categorized content information to generate data describing an event timeline, the data describing the event timeline indicating the clickstream data and the categorized content information at the dates and times; and

predicting, by the processor, a future action entered at the set top box at a future time based on a probability analysis of the data describing the event timeline.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining seasonal differences in the data describing the event timeline during different seasons.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising projecting a purchase based on the data describing the event timeline.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the content information comprises receiving a record indicating the content was one of the local programming, local advertising, the national programming, and national advertising.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising combining the data describing the event timeline with purchasing information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the content information comprises receiving an attribute of the local programming.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising correlating the data describing the event timeline with preceding clickstream data received during preceding content.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, from the data describing the event timeline, a duration between successive ones of the actions.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the content information comprises receiving an identifier of an advertiser.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving purchasing information describing one or more purchases associated with the set top box.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising combining the data describing the event timeline with the purchasing information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the clickstream data comprises receiving a subscriber identifier.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising querying for a genre associated with the content.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the clickstream data comprises receiving an indication that the alternate video source is selected.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising timestamping the clickstream data.

16. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor, content information describing content available from content sources at dates and times;

processing, by the processor, clickstream data stored in a clickstream database according to a hierarchy to determine a content source of the content sources that is providing the content currently being displayed, the clickstream data describing actions generated by a set top box during the content currently being displayed, the hierarchy first inspecting the clickstream data to determine an alternate video source as the content source, the hierarchy second inspecting the clickstream data to determine a channel as the content source, the hierarchy third querying a local content database to determine local programming provided via the channel as the content source, the hierarchy fourth querying a national content database to determine national programming provided via the channel as the content source, and the hierarchy fifth determining no content was available via the channel;

merging, by the processor, the clickstream data with the content information to generate data describing an event timeline of the actions generated by the set top box during the content; and

predicting, by the processor, a future action generated by the set top box at a future time based on a probability analysis of the data describing the event timeline that merges the clickstream data with the content information.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising categorizing the content information.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving a genre associated with the content information.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising assigning a date and time to the clickstream data.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining seasonal differences in the data describing the event timeline during different seasons.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving an attribute of the national programming.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising correlating preceding clickstream data during preceding content.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving the clickstream data comprises receiving a duration between successive ones of the actions.

24. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving an identifier associated with an advertiser associated with a national advertisement.

25. The method of claim 16, further comprising retrieving purchasing information describing one or more purchases associated with the set top box.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising combining the data describing the event timeline with the purchasing information.

27. A computer-readable memory storing code that when executed causes a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving content information describing content available from different content sources at dates and times;

receiving clickstream data stored in a clickstream database, the clickstream data describing actions generated by a set top box at the dates and times;

processing the clickstream data stored in the clickstream database according to a hierarchy to determine a content source of the different content sources that is providing the content currently being displayed, the hierarchy first inspecting the clickstream data to determine an alternate video source as the content source, the hierarchy second inspecting the clickstream data to determine a channel as the content source, the hierarchy third querying a local content database to determine local programming provided via the channel as the content source, the hierarchy fourth querying a national content database to determine national programming provided via the channel as the content source, and the hierarchy fifth determining no content was available via the channel;

merging the clickstream data with the content information to generate data describing an event timeline; and

predicting a future action generated by the set top box at a future time based on a probability analysis of the data describing the event timeline that merges the clickstream data with the content information.

28. A system, comprising:

a hardware processor; and

a memory device, the memory device storing code, the code when executed causing the hardware processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving content information describing available content that is available from different content sources at dates and times;

displaying electronic content;

processing clickstream data stored in a clickstream database according to a hierarchy to determine a content source of the different content sources that is providing the electronic content currently being displayed, the clickstream data describing actions generated by a set top box at the dates and times, the hierarchy first inspecting the clickstream data to determine an alternate video source as the content source, the hierarchy second inspecting the clickstream data to determine a channel as the content source, the hierarchy third querying a local content database to determine local programming provided via the channel as the content source, the hierarchy fourth querying a national content database to determine national programming provided via the channel as the content source, and the hierarchy fifth determining no content was available via the channel;

merging the clickstream data with the content information to generate data describing an event timeline that indicates the clickstream data and the content information over time;

retrieving purchasing information describing a purchase associated with the set top box;

comparing the data describing the event timeline with the purchasing information;

determining at least a portion of the purchasing information matches the data describing the event timeline;

determining a category associated with the purchasing information that matches the data describing the event timeline; and

predicting a future action entered at the set top box at a future time based on the category associated with the purchasing information that matches the data describing the event timeline.